Icky Pug Ears
I don’t know about other pugs, but my boys tend to get very dirty ears and are very susceptible to ear infections and yeast in their ears. Chicken or the egg situation I don’t know, but gross nonetheless. To avoid this I try to should be better about maintaining a routine ear cleaning (along with trimming nails) maybe once a week. I often find that I get off schedule, forget, and then find I’ve got a bigger issue to deal with once I remember to check again.
The other night poor Putter’s ears were really red, kinda crusty, and even cracked and slightly bleeding! I was freaked out but he didn’t seem to be bothered or in pain over it. I carefully cleaned his ears and thought I’d better visit the vet to get some medicine to clear it up.Normally I’m all for taking your pet to the vet if there’s an issue. However, since I’m very familiar with the pugs’ ear problems I already know what the “issue” is, so I consulted Google to see if there was a less expensive, more natural way to treat Putter’s ears. Of course there is!
Apparently you can mix equal parts of white vinegar and water to make a cleansing solution. Then you saturate a cotton ball and carefully swab the insides of their ears. I was very cautious about doing so, thinking maybe it would be a bit painful, vinegar being acid and all. But, Putter was really good about it and not bothered in the least. I’ve been doing it for a couple days and I’m happy to report his ears have really improved a great deal. I’ll probably cut back on this to once a week or something but it’s good to know I have a quick, easy, and natural way to treat the ear issues (not to mention WAY less expensive!)
Let me point out though if you are not entirely sure of what’s going on in your pet’s ear, DO consult your vet before trying to treat it yourself!
Play to Your Strengths
In my last post I talked about my new job and how it was a huge change from my previous job. I wanted to talk a little more about WHY I’m taking the risk to make a career change. Many people who don’t know me well or might not know about my side business and passion for designing, creating, and “making things” are usually surprised when they hear I’m going from a banker to basically a graphic designer; some possibly question my logic. Let me explain.
One of my favorite lessons from my Professor in my management class in the MBA program is that people should play to their strengths. The idea is that you will be more productive and happier if you are in a position where you are BOTH talented and passionate. You might find success doing something that you are talented at but not passionate, or you could be doing something you are passionate about, but not particularly talented. The real magic happens when you achieve the combination of both.
Growing up we are told “practice makes perfect” and that if you are not good at something you should work harder and you will do better next time. My Professor said, “Sure, I might go from terrible to bad but I’ll never go from terrible to excellent; You have more growth potential when focusing on improving an area of which you already have strength.”
That point stuck with me this past year. While I enjoy most aspects of my banking job and I feel I do fairly well, supported by my reivews, there were parts where I was not passionate, or quite honestly, not particularly talented. (Public speaking for instance.) I tried hard and I did see improvements in those areas but I still don’t really enjoy it or feel that I’m spectacular. My new job will allow me to explore a position where I am both naturally talented and very passionate. Check back with me in a few years and let’s see where I’m at in life and how that rates on the happy-meter. 
In support of playing to your strengths…
Think about Michael Jordan. He is undoubtedly the most talented basketball player, ever. He has a natural talent for the sport but that doesn’t mean he didn’t have to work very hard at it to attain the incredible level he did. Now remember when he decided to take up baseball? There’s no question in my mind that he put just as much heart and soul into working out and practicing but he just didn’t have the same natural talent with baseball as he did basketball; therefore, he was not as successful.
One of my favorite quotes of all time was from MJ. He said, “I have missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot… and missed. And I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why… I succeed.”
Important Note: If you are talented and passionate about something that doesn’t mean success will come easy.
So, having said all that, are you playing to your strengths? If not, why not? Tell me about what you do and what you dream of doing.
Want to learn more about this topic? Check out:
Marcus Buckingham - Consultant & Author
First Break All the Rules – Book by M. Buckingham
Now Discover Your Strengths - Book by M. Buckingham
Strengthsfinder 2.0 – Book & online evaluation to help you discover, explain, and utilize your strengths
Playing to Your Strengths - Article from Businessweek
Play to Your Strengths - Article from Bizsuccess
Time for a Change
Today is my last day as a commercial banker. Although some of my co-workers like to poke fun and point out that I quit once before and came back, I think this is truly my final term. No more number crunching, analyzing business trends, comparing ratios, and talking about how companies plan to come out of this economic crisis.
Not that I particularly disliked my job, we all have bad days but for the most part I do enjoy banking and did look forward to becoming a commercial lender, despite the fact that banking is NOT so much fun right now. However, a unique opportunity presented itself and I’m a firm believer in making change and taking calculated risks if you want to learn, grow, and take charge of your life. Even though the job market is scary right now, sometimes you’ve got to take a chance.
Monday I will start my career in marketing for one of the world’s largest office furniture manufacturers. I will be doing the graphics and layout for their catalogs. TOTALLY different from banking, no? Given my undying internal need to “make stuff” and be creative, this should prove to be a fantastic change.
I’m going from left brain activities to right brain activities. BTW, I found this really interesting little “test” on right vs. left brain here. Apparently most people who take it are left brainers but if you concentrate you can turn the tables and see things from a right brain perspective. I was able to see it both ways. Seems appropriate since I’m interested in right and left brain activities. I feel that I have been successful in both areas depending on the project or task at hand. I don’t think that I’m any more one way or the other, though it varies. Do any of you feel that way? A little bit of column A, a little bit of column B?
Now that I have the opportunity to be more creative during my day job I wonder if I’ll still like to do my creative projects at night, or if I’ll come home and crave number crunching?! Probably both. I’m kinda weird like that…I’ve decided I have some sort of chronic “life-experience ADD”. I want to do everything, be everything, know everything, see everything. I thought I’d get that sorted out as I got older and went through all this higher education but all I’ve done is expose myself to more ideas, topics, and interests in the world. If someone would pay me to be a student of life I’d be set.
Are any of you seeking new jobs/careers right now? By choice or other?Have you always known what you wanted to be when you grew up? Are you doing it yet? I can’t be the only one…
Everyone Loves a Shortcut
Some of my co-workers are amazed at what a geek I am how fast I can navigate through documents and spreadsheets and they often consult with me on the best way to setup reports, how to fix random bugs, etc. Since this is my last week at the bank (Yep! More info on that later…) the secretary pulled me aside for some formatting help in Excel before I’m gone. She noticed that I was making all kinds of changes without using my mouse to go up to the top of the document, drop down the menu, and select the function I needed. I told her that’s because I’m obsessed with using keyboard shortcuts, they save a TON of time; when you spend as much time on a computer as I do, those few seconds spent manipulating your mouse to go through menus hundreds of times a day can really cut into your productivity.
I wanted to print her a list of some things she could learn and use once I’m gone. I did a quick search for basic MS Office keyboard shortcuts but I didn’t find anything readily available. There were some long lists I could download but I was looking for just the basics – cut, paste, save, etc. Couldn’t find one. So, I simply typed up my own list and decided to share it on here in case my readers weren’t aware of these nifty little time savers.
BASIC MS OFFICE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
Use this key combination To do this:
CTRL + C Copy
CTRL + V Paste
CTRL + X Cut
CTRL + S Save
CTRL + A Select All
CTRL + Z Undo
In Word
ALT + F Open the File Menu
ALT + E Open the Edit Menu
ALT + I Open the Insert Menu
ALT + T Open the Tools Menu
ALT + A Open the Window Menu
ALT + H Open the Help Menu
In Excel
ALT + F Open the File Menu
ALT + E Open the Edit Menu
ALT + V Open the View Menu
ALT + I Open the Insert Menu
ALT + O Open the Format Menu
ALT + T Open the Tools Menu
ALT + D Open the Data Menu
ALT + W Open the Window Menu
ALT + H Open the Help Menu
Cupcake Stand Factory
That’s what our house has felt like this past week. By request, I designed two more sizes so now we have small, medium, and large cupcake stands! We just shipped out a medium stand last week to a customer in California and we’re shipping a large stand to a baker in Maryland and a small stand to someone near Chicago! Whew!
Handy Andy has been a great instructor teaching me how to use a bunch of his fun power tools. (I was a little scared I might saw a finger off but so far so good!) I don’t have near the patience he has so I had a couple bad hours as I got over the learning curve and was about to yank this item entirely. Since he did most of the construction on the last couple stands I had NO IDEA how much work actually went into these babies. But, Andy got me through it and once I saw the finished product I realized it’s totally worth it.
We’re continuing to find new ways to improve the quality and process and we enjoy working on them so for now we’ll keep on making ‘em. How do you like our latest creation:
This is our newly designed small stand. It has three tiers – 20″, 15″, 10″ and should hold approximately 75 cupcakes. Or, about 65 cupcakes and a small cake on top. I am loving the zebra print!
Truly an Honor
Despite the random weather this weekend, we managed to have a successful outdoor wedding this weekend for my friends Wendy and Jason. And while I have always been deathly afraid of public speaking, I am happy to report that I was able to perform the wedding ceremony without any fear whatsoever. It was like I was a natural born minister. Weird, I know. =)
The whole day was a bit chaotic though, I was running around putting out fires the entire time. But it was great. I really am proud of myself for being able to think on my feet and help facilitate the event without having done more planning ahead of time. And I can’t believe I wasn’t scared a bit to be in front of so many people. I think because I knew it wasn’t about me…they weren’t there to watch and judge me, but to watch and support Wendy and Jason. And that’s why I was there; My job was to make sure they had the best day possible and I think they did.
Here are a few random things that happened:
- Poor Jessica had to spend 3.5 hours getting her hair, nails and eyebrows done that morning b/c she got stuck with a new girl! (Jess was NOT happy!)
- Stephanie’s dress was a couple inches too long so I took it up the morning of the wedding.
- All the girls needed their dresses steamed so thank goodness I got a Tobi steamer for my wedding last year!
- The girls were about to jump in the limo when I counted the bouquets and realized we were one short. Just call me Laura Martha “MacGyver” Stewart-Meckley because I quickly looked around, grabbed some leftover flowers, a ponytail band, some floral tape & ribbon and whipped together a make-shift bouquet. It didn’t match the rest perfectly, but I honestly don’t think anyone noticed.
- LOL – Demitrios (a groomsman) came over to me to help put on his boutonniere and he said, “I told everyone to come see you because whatever we can do Laura can do better!” (Thanks for the vote of confidence D!)
- The stupid wind blew the aisle runner all over the place so we grabbed it and the guests put a foot on it while Wendy came down the aisle.
- The sand ceremony vase broke as the kids were pouring in their sand.
- The Best Man couldn’t get the ring off his finger!
- We had no electricity in the park so we had to use a little CD Player that skipped a bit with the crazy wind.
- I was able to contain myself during the ceremony, but did cry a bit during the sand ceremony while SarahJayne sang Ave Maria.
- I was so excited at the end of the ceremony I was nearly screaming “Ladies & Gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to give you MR. & MRS. JASON & WENDY FARNSWORTH!!” (I almost busted out with spirit fingers and a Russian, but I did manage to contain myself to a point)
- When the wedding party arrived at the reception and sat at the head table, Jessica (one of the bridesmaids) came over and said “Help! Everyone is asking me what we’re supposed to do, I don’t know! What ARE we supposed to do?” So, I jumped into action, consulted my trusty itinerary I created and tried to wrangle them up to cut the cake and get photos. Afterwards I dismissed tables for dinner, got everyone ready for their speeches, prepped the DJ for their dances, and ran back to cut & serve the cake. Then I danced and drank heavily the rest of the night. I was told by a few that I’m “the coolest minister they had ever met!”
- When we realized the DJ was not truly prepared for the wedding (in his defense, he’s not really a DJ but a bandmember with some DJ equipment who was nice enough to fill in last minute since the original DJ backed out…I know, what’s with these people backing out?!) we sent Handy Andy home to get his hard drive of 50,000+ songs so we had a nice variety of music.
All in all, it was fine. Everyone had a good time and most importantly, the new Mr. & Mrs. enjoyed themselves. I had a few people half joking, half serious tell me “If I ever get married you are HIRED!” and I had one girl (sort of a friend of a friend) who is pretty serious ask me if I would consider doing her wedding. I told her I would think about it. I had a great time doing Wendy’s wedding but I never had plans of making this my new career.
Truth be told, I loved every minute of it. I loved the planning, the coordinating, the excitement, the smiles, the tears, just everything. My friends think I’m crazy, but I honestly had a great time. We laughed, we cried, we had a blast. It was an amazing day that I will remember for as long as I live. It truly was an honor.
Now, I will use my minister powers to pray that my group of friends will return from Mexico in good health.
Handy Andy is at it Again!
Andy is obsessed with one of those people who believes everything has a place (or should) and everything should be in its place. (For these reasons I try to keep him out of my workshop as much as possible.) He is constantly adding shelves, storage, organizing and maximizing nearly every nook and cranny possible. (I know, I’m the luckiest girl around…somebody pinch me!)
He has said he would like to have a project to work on every weekend and his latest project is custom built wall to wall cabinets for the living room.
If you recall, our living room used to look like this:
And now…here’s the work in progress (never mind the mess):
Andy must have been excited to start utilizing his new storage area because he dug out all his old game systems so he could put them on the shelves. (I swear he was spoiled, he has like every game system ever made. Except Coleco, which was my first game system. He’s too young to even know what that is.)
The far right area has several drawer spaces for DVDs, CDs, etc. and closest to the fireplace on the right holds all his digital equipment for the TV, PlayStation, and DVR stuff. We will move some of this around and likely store out of season decorations and stuff too.
Although we need to finish the top and the front doors, the boys don’t mind NOT having doors!
Most of the insides of the cabinets are made with sturdy, unfinished 2×4 pieces and MDF since no one will really see it. The top and outside pieces are stained oak panels and crown molding. I thought we were going with simple, flat panel doors but not a chance; Handy Andy wants to do something a little more fancy, so with our busy schedule it may take a few more weeks (or several) to get this completely finished. We’ll keep you posted!
* * *
Pssst! Hey NewlyWoodwards:
While telling me about the cabinets Andy said he finally
learned how to cut crown moulding properly, then added,
“Hey, if Kim & Ryan still want to put up crown moulding I can probablydo it now.”
I told him,
“If you say that too loud Kim just might make that your next project.”
To which he replied,
“That’s fine. I can help them.”
So there you go!! Let me know if you want to tag-team some
home reno projects this summer!
God Bless Texas!
After a surprisingly smooth flight (seems I don’t have too many of those!) I made it to the lone star state last night to visit Veronica for her graduation tomorrow.
Thank goodness I went to the library the other day because I’ve decided Dallas Fort Worth does not have nearly enough easily accessible outlets for my laptop so I had to find something else to do between flights. I read an entire book on the way here. It was an easy read though, I might talk about it later because it made me think. About what? You’ll have to come back later to find out!
Anyway, I’m here in this amazing King Suite in the new Holiday Inn Express. (I’m super glad Andy doesn’t travel as much for work anymore but I must admit I have often been the benefactor of his eleventy-billion points that he racked up when he did travel most of the year.) Giant king size bed (thinking we need one of these at home), marble bathroom counters and shower (another good idea for home) and fun southwestern colors. There is one framed print that I keep looking at. I want it. But it surely won’t fit in my carry on. It’s just a super close shot of the face of a clock. I’d take a photo and share IF I HADN’T LEFT MY CAMERA AT HOME!!!
Oh yeah, totally walked off without my camera, which used to be more of an appendage to my body. I think I may go buy one today because I feel absolutely lost without it. Before you think “Oh, she’s one of THOSE girls” don’t, I’m truly not…my camera has been on it’s last leg for about a year. It’s been held together with tape for some time, which was fine with me as long as it worked, but the screen has been going funny. It’s like 5 years old so yeah, it’s time for a new one.
Today’s plan is girl’s day with Veronica and her sisters. Probably going to get our toes done, run some errands (like get me a camera!), meet some of Veronica’s friends and co-workers, then probably visit with her adorable boys when they get home from school. I think we’re headed to Kabuki Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi Bar (yum) sometime too! Tomorrow is the graduation and reception, then back to Iowa on Sunday.
Control
This is a post about control. My control. Control of what I say and control of what I do. And this time I’m going to do it my way….
Okay…that was for all you Janet fans out there; You know what I’m talkin’ about!
Anyway…just a little update on my “healthy living” / 30 Day Shred idea. After looking for the DVD at several different stores (that apparently didn’t have it) I decided to go ahead and order the darn thing online. So, it’s on the way. Baby steps.
This morning I tried a “Green Monster Smoothie” (which I found here - scroll down) only I added more berries so it was more like purple sludge. Never mind my little mess. Note: The Magic Bullet wasn’t the best option, the blender worked better.
Ingredients included 1 cup Almond milk, 2 leaves of kale, small handful of spinach, small handful of each frozen raspberries & frozen blackberries, a banana, and 1 tablespoon of milled flax seed. Sounds gross, huh? Good news is that it tasted really good. Seriously!
Around 11:30 am I was close to gnawing off my right arm because I wanted to eat a donut the work peeps* brought into the office. Instead I decided to confess to you, Internet, so that I will maintain control. But to be completely honest, I did help myself to some breakfast pizza. Though I managed to avoid the donuts during our morning meeting. Then they put the treats in the office directly across from me and I swear they were calling my name. I decided to manage another half hour until I devoured my portion controlled healthy lunch I packed in my new Fit ‘n Fresh lunch container I picked up at good ‘ole Gordman’s last night.
*Speaking of peeps, I have to remember to share some funny photos with you later!
